Anemia from blood in stools?

Hello fellow dairy free moms!! I just took my 3 1/2 month DS into his new pedi yesterday and they did a CBC to check for anemia since he's had little bits of blood in his stools since Jan 10th. Going on 4 weeks. It's improving for sure. Less and less it's just taking time. Have any of you dealt with this? He is slightly anemic and the dr said he wasn't worried at this point u it still worries me. The nurse said I could use Iron drops if I wanted. I'm afraid of overdose too. Anybody had to use Iron drops for their baby positive for anemia from this issue. He only has the GI issues. No eczema, reflux (he outgrew that), congestion (that has improved), etc. Just the green/slimy sometimes blood specked or streaked stools. The stools seems to be turning a little more yellow at times now too which is good. They go back and forth. I've been dairy/soy/egg free for 4 weeks this Friday, beef free for 3 weeks, gluten/wheat free for almost 2 weeks, and mostly corn free for almost 2 weeks. It's tough but I know I do not want to quit breast feeding unless absolutely necessary and his new Dr is on my side with that. Has not seen a GI doc yet at this point bc he seems to be improving or an allergist. Any advice or previous experience with this would be soo helpful!! Thank you!!

Comments (11)

If your doctor isn't too worried about the anemia at this point, I would not use iron drops, because they can cause more GI issues than you already have and it could get really hard to tell what is causing the issues. Would it work for *you* to take iron supplements? Like would your milk end up having more iron in it? Might be something to look into.

I'll definitely find out. As of yesterday I'm taking double my prenatals for the extra iron boost to see if that helps. I sure hope it does. I just hate for him to get blood drawn again. It was a horrible experience for me even tho his phlebotomist was very good at it. I'll ask the nurse when she calls back with the stool culture results hopefully tomorrow. Thank you for the help mamahobson.

My LO is currently on iron drops. Her hemoglobin was down to 8.4 and after 2 weeks on iron it went up to 8.9. As mamahobson said, she is having more diarrhea than usual and I am pretty sure it's the iron causing it bc my diet hasn't changed. We also have a lot of ups and downs. There are times it seems she is improving ( before she was on iron) and then we start seeing blood again. I am off dairy, soy and eggs. I am not going to take anything else out until she is done with iron. Also, she bled a lot before getting the hemoglobin down. I believe she had a reaction to the rotavirus vaccine that lasted over a month and there days that her diapers were all blood. Good luck!

Crisbrasil, what do you think about a multivitamin with iron? I'm going to ask the nurse tomorrow when they call me back. Hoping they have his stool results back tomorrow and he doesn't have any bacteria or hidden blood. He's never had a diaper full of blood or anything. Just the green/slimy poo with streaks or specks sometimes. It's been good today. Only had 2 BM's today too.

I just kept taking my prenatal, but at 6 months her colitis got so bad we had to switch her to Neocate all of a sudden when she coughed up blood. So there was enough iron in the formula and she was on it until 15 months.

I'm also a firm believer that nutrients should come from food, so once of solids eating age it's easier to provide iron rich sources into the diet.